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Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves is scheduled for restricted free company after this season, however the crew reportedly plans to maintain him.
When writing about Los Angeles’ acquisition of Rui Hachimura, Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports activities famous the Lakers would favor to maintain Reaves despite the fact that they might clear greater than $30 million by renouncing Hachimura and different gamers.
Whereas preserving gamers comparable to Hachimura and Reaves on new contracts may restrict the entrance workplace’s means to usher in a max-level participant to take the courtroom alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis, there’s something to be mentioned about how necessary function gamers will be on championship contenders.
Reaves has crammed that function properly for the Lakers since they introduced him aboard as an undrafted participant for the 2021-22 marketing campaign.
He appeared in 61 video games as a rookie and averaged 7.3 factors, 3.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists whereas capturing 45.9 p.c from the sphere and 31.7 p.c from deep.
The Oklahoma product establishing himself as even a secondary contributor was one of many few brilliant spots for a Lakers crew that did not even qualify for the play-in match and positioned him to be an much more necessary a part of the crew in 2022-23.
He has been simply that this season with averages of 10.8 factors, 3.1 rebounds and a pair of.2 assists whereas capturing 48.8 p.c from the sphere and 36 p.c from three-point vary. His emergence as extra of an outdoor shooter specifically has been necessary as a result of the Lakers wrestle from deep as an entire.
Los Angeles clearly nonetheless envisions competing within the Western Convention this season regardless of an uneven 22-25 begin given the choice to commerce for Hachimura. How Reaves performs throughout a possible late playoff push may very well be a key consider any contract discussions forward of a deal.
However the Lakers reportedly wish to be sure he stays with the crew at this level.
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